I find the buntline hitch an easy one to half-remember: It is a clove hitch taken around the standing part of the line. Half-remember because the clove hitch could be tied in two directions, and only one of them is a buntline hitch, the one where the tail is on the inside of the loop.

The various names are fun, but confusing. Call it the strangle knot, strangle knot, or poacher's noose knot, which appears to be the names I find online for what David showed here and called the scaffold hitch.

It is a "double overhand" tied around the standing part.

I also read online that it works in monofilament fishing line (or just about any cordage), so it sounds like a good choice in slick stuff like spectra. I think I've read that the proper buntline hitch can slip in these conditions, although it won't flog open.

The link to directions for the scaffold hitch in this thread show something with an extra twist and an extra turn put in. This is more complicated than just a "triple overhand" around the standing part. If I tie it around something other than the standing part and then pull that thing out I end up with a knot I can't identify, although it probably has a name too. Looks a little bit constrictor-ish, but isn't quite that either.

Of course I'm spending time reading about knots instead of setting up rope and tying them right now. Time to sign out and get to work!

I looked up the scaffold knot on a few of the many knot-tiers websites, and one of them says that the scaffold knot is a 3-turn version of my knot, and my knot is a snare knot or strangle knot; and the buntline hitch is something else again. But they all do the same job, as being a semi-permanent, easy to make, hard to undo knot that will not shake loose.

Gary Pick wrote:Came across this site that explains it all quite well.
http://knots-guide.blogspot.com/2008/04/scaffold-knot.html

Exellent! Isn't it a delight that no matter how old you get, there's always something new (to you) that can be learned.

Gary Pick wrote:Hey Annie you back in NZ?

Yup :-D!  Great time: but gaff rig ain't for me - tho' it does look pretty.  Good to be back on Fantail and not much colder than a Nova Scotian summer!.